Sardinia on Screen: The Construction of the Sardinian Character in Italian Cinema (Studia Imagologica 21)

Description

This volume explores how Sardinians and Sardinia have been portrayed in Italian cinema from the beginning of the 20th century until now, starting from the examination of Sardinian tropes in a wide range of texts - travel writing, fictional sources, essays and academic works. The purpose is to shed light on the cultural construction of the Sardinian character and to reveal the ideology that is behind this process. Hence the volume challenges topics such as the dynamics between verbal and visual imagery, and the intertwining between discourse, images and audience. It addresses the following questions: how was the Sardinian character translated from texts into films? Which strategies were developed to define Sardinian images on screen? For whom were these images intended? Which ideology lies behind the images?
Focusing on cultural images within film and literature, this volume is of interest to those working in imagology, comparative, cultural and Italian studies.

Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction Imagology: Theory and Methods Tropes, Images and Exoticism National Characters: Origins and Development Sardinian Character National Characters from Literature to Cinema Description of the Corpus Structure of the Book 1. Sardinian Tropes in Literature before 1900 Sardinia in European Literature before 1900 Tropes of Land People Women Character Conclusion 2. Sardinian Tropes in Literature after 1900 Sardinia in European Literature after 1900 Tropes of Land People Women Character Conclusion 3. Sardinian Tropes on Screen The `Ethnographic Spectacle' Sardinian Landscape North versus South Sardinia as a Symbol of the South Mountains and Landscape Social-political Marginality Exoticism and Wilderness Sea and Tourism: Coast as Interface Cities and Post-modernity Conclusion 4. Sardinian Characters on Screen Physical Appearance and National Character Shepherds and Bandits Honour and Shame: The `Vendetta Barbaricina' Shepherds versus Town-dwellers and Farmers The Sardinian Woman The `New' Sardinian People Conclusion 5. Sardinian Identity on Screen The Festivity as an Icon of Sardinian Identity National Costume Prehistory as a Topos of Sardinian Identity Italian and Sardinian on Screen Conclusion 6. Cases La grazia (Aldo De Benedetti, 1929) Sequestro di persona (Gianfranco Mingozzi, 1968) Scarabea (Hans Jurgen Syberberg, 1969) Il disertore (Giuliana Berlinguer, 1983) Pesi leggeri (Enrico Pau, 2001) L'ultima frontiera (Franco Bernini, 2006) Post Scriptum: Bellas mariposas (Salvatore Mereu, 2012) Conclusion Appendix: Brief Summary of Sardinian History Bibliography Filmography Index of Names Index of Films